One of the next major aircraft acquisition programs to be undertaken by Defence is not listed in the public version of the White Paper or Integrated Investment Plan. The RAAF fleet of Special Purpose Aircraft (SPA) is based in Canberra and due for replacement over the next two years or so.

Nigel Pittaway |Melbourne

According to CASG, the solution will replace the existing SPA operation – and industry contract arrangements – with ‘performance-based service delivery contract arrangements’, by the appointment of a Managing Contractor. A Request for Proposals was released to industry in late 2015 with a closing deadline of February 16 last year.

Responses are now under consideration and ADM understands the selection of a preferred Managing Contractor will occur early this year, with contract negotiation and subsequent Government approval to take place over the next year. Because the proposals are under active consideration, industry is reluctant to discuss any aspect of the program, although some components of the eventual solution, such as the installation of a VIP cabin in an Airbus KC-30A, are now well known.

Current fleet

The SPA fleet is operated by the RAAF’s No.34 Squadron, based at Defence Establishment Fairbairn (Canberra) and is currently made up of two Boeing 737 Business Jets (BBJ), which handle the bulk of the long haul trips, and a trio of Bombardier CL-604 Challengers, for the shorter range domestic trips or visits to airfields which are too small to accommodate the larger aircraft.

“The Challenger, with a crew of three (pilot, co-pilot and attendant) and up to nine passengers, is no longer large enough for some of the tasks.”

The fleet was acquired in 2002 and has been supported by Qantas Defence Services and later by Northrop Grumman Australia (which acquired QDS in 2014) since that time. The BBJs and Challengers replaced a fleet of five Hawke-era Dassault Falcon 900s, which had been in service since 1989.

The task of the squadron is to provide safe, secure, efficient and reliable air travel for the Governor-General, Prime Minister, visiting Heads of State and other VIPs, when commercial travel arrangements are unsuitable due to either the location, timing, or security considerations at destination or arrival airports. In the modern, connected world, it is becoming increasingly important for government business to be conducted while travelling, and while the SPA fleet has provided a basic capability up until the present time, future demands will dictate more sophisticated communications equipment at the very least.

The average tasking provides between 1,200 and 1,800 special purpose flights each year and the 2016 Defence Portfolio Budget Statement reveals that the BBJs are planned for a total of 1,600 flying hours each year between now and the middle of 2020. Given their primary domestic commitment, the three Challengers are budgeted to fly a total of 2,403 hours each year over the same period.

However, one of the reasons for the SPA replacement program – which ADM understands could actually be an upgrade and/or replacement program – is the aforementioned requirement for government business to be undertaken during the long transit flights between Canberra and international destinations.

A further reason is the realisation that the Challenger, with a crew of three (pilot, co-pilot and attendant) and up to nine passengers, is no longer large enough for some of the tasks. The two BBJs are larger, but are unable to carry the necessary numbers of aides or members of the press gallery on many international trips. This latter fact was tragically highlighted on March 7 2007, when a Garuda Indonesia 737 crashed at Yogyakarta, claiming the lives of five Australians travelling with then-Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. The BBJ also does not have sufficient range to reach many international destinations, in Europe or North America for example, without one or more technical stops along the way.

An innovative solution

Also known as the SPA Transition Program, the project seeks ‘innovative solutions’, through the selection of the Managing Contractor, who will be responsible for integration, delivery and management of the various aspects, including supply of an aircraft type (or types), finance and support.

It is therefore the successful Managing Contractor who will then form partnerships with business jet manufacturers to acquire aircraft to fulfil the Commonwealth’s requirements. This may result in a single type of larger executive aircraft capable of filling most, if not all, of the roles currently undertaken by the BBJ and Challenger – or it may see a mix of aircraft acquired, possibly from one or more manufacturer. Airfield performance, the ability to get into many of the smaller airfields around Australia and the region, will also have a major influence on which type(s) are selected.

Credit: Defence

However ADM understands that the RFP is designed to be flexible enough for the Commonwealth to veto any aircraft type, or types, proposed by the Managing Contractor if it so chooses.

The RFP, which closed on February 19 2016, also allowed for (optional) Request For Tender quality data to be submitted for Second Pass approval by November 1 last year.

“In conducting this RFP, the Commonwealth intends to shortlist respondents to participate in a subsequent procurement process, the nature of which will depend on the outcome of the RFP,” the documentation states. “The Commonwealth also intends to use this RFP to shortlist preferred capability solutions for future SPA service, with the aim to present tender quality solutions to Government before the end of 2016.”

KC-30A as a Government transport

As revealed by ADM in late 2015, one of the solutions in the SPA transition mix is the incorporation of a VIP cabin, together with the necessary communications capabilities, into one of the RAAF’s Airbus KC-30A Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) aircraft.

This was confirmed in the recent IIP, which revealed that $190 million had been allocated for an ‘Air to Air Refuelling Aircraft – Government transport and communications capability’. This project has since been approved and will fill the requirement for long range SPA transportation, while simultaneously allowing government business to be conducted en-route.

It will also satisfy the Commonwealth’s desire to accommodate a larger number of aides and media representatives than the current BBJ is able to uplift.

The aircraft to have the interior fitted is understood to be the second of the two ex-Qantas A330-200 aircraft purchased under Project Air 7403 Phase 3 in 2015 and currently undergoing conversion to KC-30A configuration by Airbus Defence and Space in Spain. The aircraft are due to be delivered to the RAAF, in the tanker configuration, in 2017 and 2018.

The modified aircraft will retain its full air to air refuelling capability and will be operated by No.33 Squadron at Amberley, alongside the other six KC-30As used for air to air refuelling (AAR) and strategic airlift operations. Tasking in support of ADF operations will have priority over SPA transport but, since many of the long-haul VIP missions are known and planned well in advance anyway, Defence expects little if any scheduling conflict.

“Defence is managing the modification of one KC-30A tanker to support a long range Government Transport and Communications capability,” a Defence Spokesperson said. “The capability is scheduled to be delivered in late 2019.”

To assist with the operation of the KC-30A in both the SPA and Air Mobility roles, ADM understands that standardisation of the RAAF’s cabin attendant training has already begun, which will facilitate workforce flexibility between 33 and 34 Squadrons to meet mission demand.

Replacement aircraft

With the wide range of missions currently flown by the RAAF’s small SPA fleet, which includes everything from transporting the Governor General or Prime Minister to London or Washington, to the Canberra-Sydney shuttle at the end of the Parliamentary sitting period, practically the entire range of current executive jets are potential contenders.

The world’s leading manufacturers of business jets – including Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, Cessna, Dassault, Embraer and Gulfstream – are understood to have held discussions with the potential Managing Contractors at some point in the RFP process, and almost the entire executive jet portfolio of each could be under consideration, depending on the mix proposed by each Managing Contractor solution.

However the KC-30A/VIP strategy will arguably remove the requirement for a large, ultra-long range aircraft and, conversely, the reported capacity limitations of the current Challenger fleet would appear to dictate a larger aircraft at the lower end of the requirement set.

With the replacement of the BBJ by the KC-30A on long haul SPA missions, a further option would be to transfer them to domestic and nearby regional operations. Although built back in 2001, the two aircraft are relatively young in terms of hours and flight cycles. With no requirement for long haul travel, for a relatively modest cost the BBJ cabins could be refurbished and reconfigured to better meet the requirements of (relatively) short-haul operations. The opportunity could also be used to install state of the art communications, such as wide-band satellite communications and internal enhancements such as wireless internet access.

If this option were to gain favour, the SPA replacement program may come down to just one new aircraft type – larger than the Challenger but still able to operate from smaller, relatively austere airfields.

This article first appeared in the February edition of ADM.